Ran Hwang

Posted on October 4, 2009 - by Kate

Share This:

Just down the block from me in New York is the School of Visual Arts — there are constantly art students out on the street working, talking and putting together shows in their various buildings. One former student there recently caught my eye with her work in buttons, Ran Hwang, who I came across on the blog, Studies in Scarlet.

Ran works with mostly thread, pins and buttons, common items similar to Tara Donovan’s work but all against walls and all taking hours and hours to complete due to their scale.

Ran’s work is repetitive and meditative, my favorite.

A close up of the above is below so you can see how close together and varied the buttons are.

Much of her work is in colors as well, which is so beautiful and easy to understand.

So cool — her works are both representative of positive and negative space.

Notice how sometimes she puts more than one button on a pin to create depth.

She deals with absence, presence, meditation, self-identity, and exploration all from the surface of a wall — inspiring!